County Armagh delivers fastest price growth

The bank's house price survey showed that more than four in ten of these counties had seen prices more than treble over the same period.

Covering 104 counties across the UK, the research saw the Scottish highlands and the city of Edinburgh complete the top three in terms of price growth - unable to beat the 331 per cent seen in County Armagh.

After such good growth, it may come as little surprise to some that Northern Ireland was the most expensive region in the UK outside London and the South East at the end of 2007.

Eight of the ten counties recording the lowest average house price gains over the past ten years are in Scotland. One is in Wales and one in the West Midlands.

Big spenders

Surrey (£364,115) was the most expensive county in the UK in both 2007 and in 1997. The next most expensive counties in 2007 are Hertfordshire (£319,091) and Oxfordshire (£315,894).

The eight most expensive counties in 2007 were the same as in 1997. East Sussex and County Down have entered the list of ten most expensive counties in the past decade, pushing Hampshire and Essex out.

However on the flipside, Blaenau Gwent is the least expensive county in the UK with an average house price in 2007 of £113,964 (£36,658 in 1997).

North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and South Humberside have entered the list of ten least expensive counties over the past decade.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, said: "Whilst Scotland has topped all of the tables for house price growth in the shorter term, over the past 10 years house price growth north of the border has been more measured.

"There are now only 20 counties in the UK with an average house price below £150,000; ten years ago, every county was below this threshold."